Contour and spiral fills

A contour fill lays its rows along the shape's own outline, ring inside ring, so the stitches echo the shape instead of crossing it in straight lines. Choose it for petals, leaves and other rounded shapes that should look sculpted, and when straight Auto-fill rows would look stiff. A circular fill sews its rows as circles round one centre point instead, cut off where the shape ends.

Select the shape, switch to the Stitch view and choose Contour fill under Type in the bar above the canvas. The bar then shows Row, Strategy, Smooth and Length; Stitch settings in the right rail has Row spacing (mm) and Overlap (mm), and the rest under Advanced. There is no Fill angle (deg), Row offset or pull compensation: the rows follow the outline, so they have no angle and no row ends to lengthen. Underlay works as for any fill, and starts on Automatic (Fill and underlay).

Each figure here is the stitch engine's own plan for the shape shown: every line is a stitch, sewn where NextStitch would sew it, and the numbers under a figure are counted from those stitches. All but the stitch-out under Where it starts and ends are drawn without underlay, so only the rows show.

Row spacing

Row in the bar, Row spacing (mm) under Stitch settings, is the distance between neighbouring rings, or between the turns of a spiral. A new shape starts at 0.4 mm, which covers the fabric. Wider spacing lets the fabric show between the lines, for a lighter, decorative fill, and takes fewer stitches and less thread. Move the slider to see the rings and the stitch count at each spacing.

Strategy

Strategy, in the bar or under Advanced, decides how the rows are joined up:

• Inner → outer, the default, sews closed rings, one inside the other. The first lies half a row inside the outline. Sewing starts on the innermost ring and works outward; each ring begins next to where the one before ended, so the short steps between them line up into a seam from the middle towards the edge. Where the next ring is more than a stitch away, the thread travels through the shape to reach it.

• Single spiral joins the rings into one continuous line. It starts on the outline itself and winds in to the middle, each turn a row spacing further in: no seam and no steps.

• Double spiral winds in along every other ring and back out along the rings between, so it starts and ends at the outline, one row apart.

A spiral needs a shape that stays in one piece as it is stepped inward. A shape with a hole, or one whose rings split into separate parts at a narrow waist, is sewn as Inner → outer whichever strategy you choose.

Spiral direction

Spiral direction appears under Advanced once Strategy is a spiral. Automatic, the default, starts on the outline and ends in the middle, unless sewing the spiral the other way round saves travel to and from the objects sewn before and after it, or brings its ends nearer the markers you moved (see where it starts and ends). Inward always starts on the outline and ends in the middle. Outward sews exactly the same stitches in the opposite order: a single spiral then starts in the middle and ends on the outline. A double spiral has both its ends at the outline, so Outward starts it at its other end, one row in, and it finishes where Inward would start. The stitches, their number and the look stay the same, so choose by where you want the stitch-out of the shape to begin.

Inward and Outward are always kept, whatever is sewn before and after and wherever you put the markers. A start or end marker you moved still decides where on the outline the spiral starts or ends, as near as it can: Inward keeps its end in the middle, Outward its start. With nothing sewn before the spiral, nothing close after it and neither marker moved, Automatic sews it as Inward does.

Smoothness

Smoothness, under Advanced and as Smooth in the bar, works on Inner → outer alone; the spirals ignore it. At 0, a new shape's value, the rings are sewn one by one. Above 0, NextStitch joins the rings and the steps between them into one line and smooths it: the corners round off and the seam disappears. The more you smooth, the shorter the line gets and the further it pulls in from the edge, so a high value leaves a band of fabric along the outline.

Repeats

Repeats, under Advanced, sews each ring or spiral Single, or three or five times as a bean stitch with ×3 and ×5, for bolder lines: every stitch goes forward, back and forward again on the same needle holes. The thread's way through the shape between rings is sewn once. Bold lines suit a wide row spacing, where the fill becomes a pattern of lines on the fabric rather than a cover. The stitch count grows three or five times.

Where it starts and ends

The rings of Inner → outer always start on the innermost ring and finish on the outer one. Where the needle comes from moves only the underlay, which starts where the needle comes in.

A spiral, and rings with Smoothness above 0, are entered where the needle comes from, like a fill:

• Sewn after another object, a spiral starts as near as it can to where that object ended: on its outline, or, with Automatic, in the middle when that is nearer, and is then sewn outward. With an underlay, the underlay starts there, and the spiral starts where the underlay ended.

• When the next object lies no more than 3 mm away, NextStitch also aims the end at it and, with Automatic, picks the start and the direction that need the least travel in and out. So a spiral sewn first in a design, with its neighbour close by, may run from the middle out to end beside it.

• Smoothed rings start on the innermost ring at its point nearest the needle, and, when the next object lies within 3 mm, end on the outer ring at its point nearest that object.

A spiral, and smoothed rings, show the same start and end markers in the Stitch view as a fill (Where fills start and end) and follow them wherever they are sewn, first in the design too, as near as they can. A single spiral runs between the outline and the middle, so one of its ends is always in the middle and the other lands on the outline nearest your marker: with Automatic the markers also choose which way it runs, while Inward keeps its end in the middle and Outward its start. Smoothed rings still start on the innermost ring and end on the outer one, each at its point nearest the marker. An end point you set replaces the aim at the next object. Rings at Smoothness 0 take no point, so their markers are hollow; a start point the fill kept from a spiral or from smoothed rings moves only its underlay.

Circular fill

Circular fill sews its rows as circles round one centre, cut off where the shape ends and joined like a fill's rows, with travel along the edge or through the fill between them. Its settings are Row (Row spacing (mm)), Length, Overlap (mm) and Underlay; it has no strategy, smoothness or direction, and it starts and ends next to its neighbours as a fill does.

The centre starts at the middle of the shape. With one circular fill selected, the Stitch view shows it as a target: drag it to move the centre, and double-click it to put it back in the middle. Moved to one side, the circles fan out from there across the shape.

Good starting values

• Keep Row spacing at 0.4 mm to cover the fabric; widen it for an open fill, and add Repeats ×3 when the lines should stand out.

• Choose Single spiral for a smooth shape without holes, and Inner → outer where you want rings; shapes with holes are sewn as rings anyway.

• Leave Smoothness at 0 unless the seam of the rings shows; small values keep the line close to the edge.

• Set Spiral direction by where the stitch-out should start, after checking it in Simulation.