Courthouse Square, Barrister's Block or Courthouse Steps would be good. Congratulations on your son's achievement.

How about the Big Star quilt. Missouri Star has a video & Jennie's block finishes at 25". She also shows a nice way to set them.
I just finished one for my oldest son's 42nd birthday and believe me they were fast. I used flannel as the batting. Like Jennie I sewed the squares into 4 rows, then I did a sort of QAYG method where I sewed down my middle sashing strip to the flannel only & then worked like that to the top & then bottom.
Best wishes & good luck. Congratulations on your son's graduation.

Yesterday I did the 5Min. quilt blocks; In 2 hrs. I made 56 blocks, used just 2 colors for a quilt 7 across,8down my blocks were 8x8. Iam considering making a ribbon border for it when I get a chance to do so. I have spend today on the computer checking all the ads in my email box and now on the quilting board. Have so many ads I have to spend a day to go thru and get rid of most of them and find the ones I want to read and answer. The 10Min. blocks would be good to.;

Log cabin, That's a great man quilt. ....:)

Courthouse Steps in his favorite colors - batiks, maybe, would be my choice. I also think Tradewinds has a masculine feel to it in muted batiks.

Edit to add the link:
http://www.hoffmanfabrics.com/EDocs/...ern%20blue.pdf

So many choices. Thanks so much to all who offered suggestions. I like the idea of Civil War fabrics and I love batiks. Still thinking.........