spent the better of 2 hours sanding and filing this down to just about where it needs to be for the next step. I also went through a quick finish sanding to see how much of the quilted pattern I got into this, or how little. the piece (for now) is perfectly flat, the white/lightish lines are actually an ingrained pattern in the wood that change depending on the light.

And what is that next step? I went on Amazon today and tomorrow I will be getting the burring and carving tools for my Dremel and then the REALLY nerve racking yet highly anticipated fun will begin as I whittle and chew through this with power tools to, hopefully, get this looking like what I have imagined in my brain.

I could never get my imagination to transfer successfully to paper when I was sketching years and years ago
(seriously, last time I sketched anything was back in 2012, and it was a pony inspired by My Little Pony lol)
But I seem to be having better luck getting my brain pictures out in wood, welp, we'll see.