One of the most powerful tools that you have at your disposal when you are designing embridery is your control of the direction of the stitches within the design. By changing the direction of the stiches you can create a separation between the different elements within your design. In the example above this is even more important because even though all of the separate flowers that make up the Hydrangea are the same color they have to appear both as separate flowers and as a hole to look like a Hydrangea. The whole look is created by keeping the colors uniform, the seperate flowers are achieved by changing the direction of the stitches, so the stitching in the individual flowers are generated outwards from the center of the flowers. This makes each flower look three-dimensional and unique. When you are planning out the stitch direction for your next design consider this simple rule, parallel stitches will blend together, perpendicular stitches will separate. Good luck.