Hey folks!  Thanks for the thoughts.  She is my granddaughter btw :)  Yea, I am an active grandparent, very involved in their lives.

Anyway, she is all better now!  Her hospital stays were in Feb and early March and was back to school late March.

It started out with her having a tummy ache (not pain just upset tummy), a bit of congestion and a fever.  The symtoms made us think she had a bit of flu as one of her sisters had just gotten over one a week before Serena's.  She got better by a Friday and was back up and around, no fever just a little tired, typical for a flu.

So, I let her compete in a local rock climbing competition  on Saturday along with 2 of her sisters (all 3 placed in the top 30 of >200 of all ages).  It was clear she wasn't well yet,  She usually was a much better climber than she was on that Saturday and usually easily beats her older (she was 6 at this time) 10yr old sister and gives her 12yr old sister a hell if a run for her money.  She placed well below them, I thought it was still fatigue from being down with a flu.

This is her on Saturday (btw, she beat the guy in blue):

On Sunday, her temp returned and had climbed to 104.  A that point it was clear something was wrong.  We hauled her to Children's Hospital.  They did an ultrasound on her tummy and they admitted her immediately.  She had a badly infected perforated appendix.  She never complained of any tummy pain, even in the hospital she said it didn't hurt.

This is her one day later on Sunday

They took her to surgery and put in a drain tube and she spent 5 days in the hospital.  Then they sent her home with antibiotics to take for 2 weeks.  Seven times a day she had to choke down God awful tasting medicine.  We mixed it with yogurt, milk, fruit juice and I even mixed it with jelly and put it on peanunt butter sandwiches.  Nothing hid it.

Then she had to go in and actually have the surgery to remove the appendix after the infection was under control.  That is when I took the photo I posted in the contest.  She was back in the hospital for the 2nd time and knew she was going in for surgery, and possibly more icky medicine.

So, thats the history behind the photo and the emotion she was expressing.

She is much better now.  Completely healed up.  I (and her) was worried that her belly button was going to go from an "innie" to an "outie" and be hard and poofy because of the surgery (an incision was made inside it) but its back to its cute self and doesn't bother her any more.

This is her this past mother's day.  As you can see, all better:

Some very interesting thoughs there, especially on how to work with models, something I have yet to do.  Well, other than family shots I mean.

Thank you for the link.

Again, not part of the contest, it kinda goes with the prior photo.

If you wouldn't point your camera directly at the sun, why would you point it at laser light?

She had just spent a week after the first hospital stay taking 2 different antibiotics (liquid) that were absolutely awful tasting.  Yes, I tried it so I would know what she was experiencing. 

Just before this photo, I had to give her a cup full of stuff in the hospital to "mellow her out" as the nurse called it.  It was a prequil for the surgery to relieve anxiaty of the IV and O2 mask.  This medicine tasted just as bad as what she spent a week chugging down 7 (3x and 4x two medicines) times a day.  She was not happy.

Model : NIKON D70
ExposureTime : 1/60Sec
FNumber : F4.5
ISOSpeedRatings : 400
ShutterSpeedValue : 1/60Sec
ApertureValue : F4.5
MaxApertureValue : F4.4
SubjectDistance : 2.37(m)
MeteringMode : Division
Flash : Fired(Auto/return light detected)
FocalLength : 70.00(mm)
Lens : 18.0-70.0 mm f/3.5-4.5

Model : NIKON D7000
ExposureTime : 1/125Sec
FNumber : F18.0
ExposureProgram : Program Normal
ISOSpeedRatings : 250
Lens : Nikor 18.0-105.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

Quote - In the cloth room there are two values that control how close the cloth will be to the collision item. It may be enough to add the extra collision types to the simulation. for things like toes the normal collision mode may not work 100%.

Good call there.  Also check that you didn't enable ignoring hands/feet/head too.  Seems to be pointy parts like toes and knees mostly so checking poly to poly collisions may help.

Also. using a higher resolution mesh for the blanket will also help, more polys means more verts to bend at.

Sorry.  Marvelous Designer 2.

Some immediate ideas...

Use magnets.

Raise the blanket .01 on the Y axis.

Change the simulation offset distance and recalc.

Export and use MD2 to make the blanket.

Quote - This has been a thorn in my side since Poser 5 so I'm going to ask this with fingers tightly crossed in hope: Is there any way of turning Inverse Kinematics permanently off?

I have IK on and off poses in my free pose kit for V4.  While all the poses are intended for V4, the IK poses will work for any figure with IK on the legs.

http://www.wolfiesden.com/poser/poses.asp#V4POSE1

Or if you want just the simplest pose file, save the following text to IKOff.pz2 and simply apply it when you load a figure....

{

version
    {
    number 6
    }
figure
{
    inkyChain     LeftLeg 
        {
        off
        }
    inkyChain     RightLeg 
        {
        off
        }
}

Ouch, that makes sense.  Have to ponder that one. 

Short of the cloth room, I don't see much option other than what has already been posted here.  Magnets, outside mesh editors, etc.

Ok, what I would do is get the first dress, since it seems to be your favored one, close to the way you want it fit prior to the sitting.  Convert it to a prop.  Open it in UVM and group the coller and the bottom hem together with their respective main cloth groups and save.  Import it into poser welding verts and then it sounds like it should go through the cloth sim from the current pose animated to the full sitting.

Laces, I agree are a tough cookie to deal with well in the cloth room.  They tend to collapse and get seriously smurfed up.

Just wondering why it won't run through the cloth room?

Clickable:

http://hotfile.com/dl/107297868/e3c884a/Sarah_for_Vick4_-_Poser_8.zip.html

Thank you!  Looking forward to seeing it when I get home from work.