POWDER SPRINGS -Some residents of Powder Springs jokingly refer to their beloved west Cobb city as the county's stepchild.

Situated about 13 miles southwest of Marietta, they say Powder Springs doesn't get the heavy traffic that the larger county seat does. But organizers of the Southern Quilt Trail hope their project of painting colorful, quilt patterns on historic buildings, will draw tourism to Powder Springs and other small towns.

The Southern Quilt Trail originated in 2001, when an Ohio woman painted a quilt square on her barn to honor her mother, a master quilter. Since then, the concept has spread across rural towns throughout the nation. In 2007, the owners of the Country Store of Seven Springs, at 4455 Marietta St. in Powder Springs, brought the project to their city of more than 15,000 residents.

At that time, 10 traditional folk art quilt "squares" painted on plywood panels and fastened to historic buildings, were installed in Powder Springs. Now, thanks to a $6,000 grant by the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the city is getting at least four new quilt squares.

"We're trying to get the tourists into the small mom and pop stores and small towns, instead of the big, busy malls," said Seven Springs store co-owner Diane Reese, 58.

Powder Springs Mayor Pat Vaughn said the city is very excited about the expansion of the quilt trail project. She said she's seen more tourists visit because of it.

"It's already brought a lot of groups to the city to see the quilt trail," she said. "I think the ones they're getting ready to put up on the buildings will be very pretty too."

The design of the painted quilt squares comes from authentic nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries quilt patterns. The structures that they're installed on are required to have some historical significance and be at least 50 years old.

Nearby Hillgrove High School students in Jennie Collier-Johnston's art classes painted the new quilt squares that will be installed on the Country Store of Seven Springs and other downtown Powder Springs businesses. They also painted smaller quilt squares to decorate a wooden box hiding utility pipes in a downtown alley.

"I think we've been doing a really good job on it," junior Rachel Fry, 17, said. "It's kind of a paint by letter thing. We just did that to speed up the process, so we can have one person painting all the red, one person painting all the green and so on."

Powder Springs expects to have the new quilt squares all installed by the end of the month.

The Southern Quilt Trail project has expanded from Powder Springs into Paulding, Carroll and Haralson counties. To date, there are at least 17 quilt squares hung in the four-county area. Seven Springs store co-owner Gloria Hilderbrand said she would like the trail to spread to the backroads of other parts of Cobb.

"Like a road that goes from here to Hiram or from here to Marietta that has some old houses or barns," Hilderbrand, 71, said.

Walking tour brochures of the quilt squares in Powder Springs are available at the Country Store of Seven Springs.

Funds are currently available to assist with the expense of materials and installation of quilt squares, according to the Rolling Hills Resource Conservation & Development Council Inc., which serves nine north Georgia counties.

To participate in the Southern Quilt Trail, an application can be obtained by calling its headquarters at (770) 439-1780 or at www.southernquilttrail.com or ww.rollinghillsrcd.org.