I have saved my file and it has totally crashed for about 12 hours. all it says is 'applying pattern brush'
Louisa Thomas: I can not open a new window, or do anything to illustrator at this time. i have clicked on the 'stop' option many times that is within the 'applying pattern brush' box, but it doesn't do anything.
Louisa,
It sounds as if you may as well close down Illy or the computer and see what is left to rescue. Hopefully, the saving has not destroyed the previous version of the file, or hopefully you have a backup to fall back on.