OK, this is really late but....what about the bars idea, but instead of having a top and bottom cross piece with the vertical bars in the middle (which sort of looks like a jail cell), use your bars to make the outline of a pig pen enclosure, with horizontal bars stitched over the pigs to hold down the fabric, the pigs over the top could be individually stitched. This descrption is not working, I wish I could just draw it for you. The "pigs over the top" would be the pigs in the enclosure that you view over the top rail of the pen. Does that make sense? You could add a barn in the background, or some 'state-fair' idea.