<p>My D will be moving off campus but she doesn't know how long she will be staying in this first house( and she doesn't have a car so moving is a problem), I bought her a double sized air bed and sheets & will be taking her shopping for small applicances since her roommate this year had most of the kitchen type stuff.
For her high school graduation- I think I gave her a watch.
She isn't big on watches though, we also gave her one for graduation from 5th grade- now that she has her cell phone, it is an incentive to keep it with her. ;)
( love Dave Matthews- husband hates him though so we won't be seeing him at the Gorge:( but we do have tickets to the important show)</p>
<p>Not inexpensive, but I love that you can now get a swiss army knife w/ a flash drive.</p>
<p>I have purchased fleece throws from Bed Bath & Beyond in the college color and then have it monogrammed. They are perfect for the dorm room bed.
I wanted to do something different for this year's grads, but their older siblings insisted I stick with the throws!</p>
<p>I just did a yahoo shopping search for "swiss army" + "flash drive" and found one w/ USB memory with 128MB memory stick, Blade, Nail file, Screwdriver, Scissors, Key ring, LED mini light and Retractable ball point pen for <$30. Also available is a similar "Air Travel" version.</p>
<p>I love this thread. Have written down every idea. Sent my mother instructions on the quilt (since she sews) asking if she has interest or knows someone in West Virginia (where she lives) we could pay to put this together if she doesn't. When I graduated from high school, we were homeless and very poor so my mother gave me pierced ears. The piercing was free and we just paid for the posts, but she said I would always remember and I have. Today, I guess all the girls already have pierced ears by 12th grade, so this doesn't really translate, but the discussion brings back such memories.</p>
<p>Wow, so many gift ideas for so many budgets, from trips to Italy to computers to homemade quilts to really good hammers! Just goes to show, there are no hard and fast rules for grad gifts. I'm impressed with the creativity here.</p>
<p>One additional suggestion for the Dr Seuss book: "Oh the Places You'll Go"....I got one of these for each of my kids. Then at their graduation party, I had everyone there sign it and write a little something on the pages. Some of the comments were very clever. It's turned into a great keepsake for both of them. Not expensive at all.</p>
<p>I'm so excited...I went to the quilt shop yesterday and picked out the fabrics for my daughter's Yale quilt. I'd picked out the pattern a couple of weeks ago and was just waiting to see which of the two schools she would pick. When she sent the card in on Thursday night, I started to dream up combinations of gray and navy . I teased my D that these weren't the best colors to make a quilt out of...if she'd picked the "other" school, I would at least have had shades of crimson and cream to work with. But I found a fantastic theme fabric with stars and musical notes and clefs on a dark gray background for a border, and I can't wait to start cutting and sewing!</p>
<p>Motherdear...question on the quilt. I've never made one before, but think I might give it a try. What do you use for the backing? Do you cut all the shirts first, and then figure out how big it will be before buying the fabric for the back? I don't think we have 30 t's so it may be a throw instead of a full size quilt.</p>
<p>doc53 (I assume you're a doc...I am too), here's a link to free instructions on how to make a T-shirt quilt:</p>
<p>It's very important to iron a fusible interfacing to each T-shirt square to stabilize it. If you don't have enough T-shirts to make a twin, consider making every other block a non T-shirt block. You could just use squares of fabric that have a motif that has special meaning...cat fabric if your child likes cats, baseball fabric, etc. </p>
<p>My D presented me with a box of 35 T-shirts, so I better get to work! But I have to make her "Yale" quilt first. Finding a pattern that looks good in gray and navy blue has not been that easy.</p>
<p>Good luck!
Quiltguru</p>
<p>"Motherdear...question on the quilt. I've never made one before, but think I might give it a try. What do you use for the backing? Do you cut all the shirts first, and then figure out how big it will be before buying the fabric for the back? I don't think we have 30 t's so it may be a throw instead of a full size quilt."</p>
<p>With standard 2" sashing (fabric that separates the t-shirts on the top of the quilt):</p>
<p>12 or 16 tshirts will make a good size throw.
20 tshirts will cover a twin size bed.
24 tshirts will cover a twin size bed and hang over the foot of the bed a bit.
25 tshirts will cover a double size bed.
30 tshirts will cover a double bed and hang over the foot of the bed a bit.
36 tshirts will cover a queen size bed.
42 tshirts will cover a king size bed.</p>
<p>I just completed an 18-shirt quilt that is staggered 4-3-4-3-4 so it's more of a 5x4 balance instead of 6x3. I used the same fabric for the sashing, binding and background and have a tiny little bit left of the 6 yards that was supplied.</p>
<p>I use a quilting weight cotton which typically has a width of 42-44"</p>
<p>curiouser,</p>
<p>I love the idea of having guests write in the doctor seuss book, I have even seen matts at Target, where guests can sign around a picture of the grad. </p>
<p>One of my favorite graduation gifts that I still use, 30 years later, is a pewter bud vase. Others have broken, it's practical and a nice reminder. Guess it's really only good for girls. But, it could be filled with flowers with the same colors as the graduate's college.</p>
<p>Thanks, Motherdear...I got your pm as well.</p>
<p>Ha, I have no idea what I pm'ed. I couldn't find it in my sent messages. Hopefully I didn't contradict myself. :)</p>
<p>I like the idea of a pewter or silver vase! What a great idea for today's mobile young adult!</p>
<p>Someone mentioned a compass.</p>
<p>I gave my son a compass from Tiffany - sterling silver, and engraved it with a special verse on the back.</p>
<p>Not an inexpensive gift but not impossibly expensive, either. It's small enough for a student to take to college and hang on to as a link to home and special enough to be a real keepsake. Not to mention that it's actually useful and that the whole concept of a compass permits all kinds of appropriate connotations.</p>
<p>I hadn't thought much about it until visiting S last weekend and his roommate actually mentioned it to me, saying what a great gift it was. If a 19-year-old male says it, it must be true. :)</p>
<p>Dizzymom: my son actually has the compass my grandfather was given as a graduation gift! My son had it on his keychain for quite a while, but he worries it's too fragile for daily use. My mother carried it for a long time, then gave it to my son when he graduated from HS.</p>
<p>I love that sort of gift. When my mathy S was in elementary school, my father gave S his slide rule and, later, the abacus he bought when he served in Japan during the Korean War. DS immediately learned to use both.</p>
<p>those are great ideas! </p>
<p>i take tons of pictures. i mostly take sport/action pictures and i try to take a picture of every senior. i throw those in a album or frame and find that the kids normally think they are pretty special--and a little cash goes in an envelope, too. many, many times, I've even gotten thank you notes from the parents....i love to take pictures. i think i've viewed most of my son's athletic career through the lens of my camera.</p>
<p>Okay, now I'm starting to get weepy. These last couple of posts are so great -- I wish my dweeby scientist husband had a slide rule to pass along, but even if he did, my writing-oriented sons would probably have no clue what to do with it.</p>
<p>The idea of thinking ahead to take pix of graduating seniors is FABULOUS! What a thoughtful person you are!</p>
<p>I gave my son a file box that that closes with file folders. I labeled some of the files "bank" "medical" "identification" and put copies of important papers in it. It became a good place for him to keep important documents, and keep papers safe...make copies of drivers license, credit cards, medical, gas cards, ets. if kids loose their wallets they can easily cancel cards by going to this file folder.</p>