This is a great quilt idea! I think the 1" hexies will be enough work - you won't need to add embroidery to make the project keep your hands busy. Of course, that depends on how much you smoke and how big you want the quilt to be. The biggest hexie project I've completed was pillow-sized, and it took ages. I'm part of an English paper piecing group on Facebook, and I would guess that a queen-sized quilt would take you a good year to complete, if you sew whenever you would have smoked (plus in the evening to keep you occupied).
Do you enjoy hand embroidery? If you decide you want to add embroidery, you can always do so after you have the flowers pieced; I would just be cautious about deciding to do it up front, and having it turn into something you don't have time for or don't really care about. This could make you feel like you have "failed" at the quilt, when it should feel like part of your success.
As an aside, I don't cut the fabric into hexagon shapes for 1" hexies; I just use 2.5" squares. The bit of extra fabric in the seam allowance doesn't hurt anything, and it means I get 4 pieces out of a charm square.