Did you publicly publish your work? E.g. blog post, youtube video, etc. Could be as simple as a single photo or a brief written description of the design. If s

Did you publicly publish your work? E.g. blog post, youtube video, etc. Could be as simple as a single photo or a brief written description of the design. If so, you're good to continue your work. You could even try to help the patent examiner find your work by publishing it and using keywords related to the patent.