Well, without being there, I'd say that if you were a fat half inch, you should still be able to do ~1/4" thick walls on a 10 inch or so bowl. You can take a look at what your fellow cheeseheads have worked up as averages for P serotina at
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.htm chapter three. Tangential 7.1% shrinkage radial 3.7 from FSP to bone dry. Means you should leave about 5/16" over your desired wall thickness for a rough for a 12" bowl. On average, take your desired final thickness and add half your tangential shrink. Any more will give you some redesign capability, but will take longer to dry, as well.
Where folks get into trouble, often, is in centering for re-turning. Not sure if this was the case for you, but I find it convenient to leave my original pin chuck opening for re-use when the piece is dry. I drop the 1" forstner down the hole and mount same way as when I originally turned. The piece is symmetrical that way, so I only have to take off the end grain until it matches the longto regain circularity.
Snapped a picture of a couple of cherry chunks from my basement. Three views of one for you. Note that part of the 1/2" loss is not really a loss, because the outside edges have dropped a full 1/4", and with the slope of the sides, that accounts for over an eighth.