rectangle fill patterns

Hello,

I am trying to set a bar (a patched series of rectangles)
with a fill pattern instead of

just a solid color. Is there an easy way to do this in
matplotlib?

I am thinking of something like Qt’s QBrush which has
cross, vertical, dense, etc. patterns.

Also, could you please tell me how to plot a rotated
ellipse?

Thanks,

John Schwartz (JPL, Monte project)