Christina Applegate coped with her double-mastectomy recovery by doing crafts

"I was at the hospital holding her hand and getting her through it," longtime friend Lance Bass tells PEOPLE. "She is a very, very loved person."

The Samantha Who? star, 36, is "doing great," says Bass. "She's totally, fully recovering."

"She's a big crossword puzzle girl. That kept her busy," says Bass, 29. "In her hours of recovery, she's made all these roses out of lace. She has hundreds and hundreds of these amazing different roses. She doesn't know what she's going to do with them."

Image WENN