He's a very nice pig. What is the problem with satin stitches? Are you doing them by machine or hand? How a small running stitch for the twisty tail? Honestly they look like cute pigs without any other embellisments. Sometimes adding more takes away from the cuteness.
Since you like pigs, I found this one recently -a cute flying pig applique pattern:
http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/PDFs/2008_WhenPigsFly.pdf