It is easy to use patterns for nice shapes like rectangle. How to fill an area by patterns enclosed by some curves? For example I have trouble with adding pattern to the following between two arcs:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (-1,1) node (v1) {} circle (4.5);
\draw (v1) circle (2.5);
\draw (-5.5,1) arc (180:360:1 and .25);
\draw (1.5,1) arc (180:360:1 and .25);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}