Whenever you go to a quilt shop, hit their bargain rack and see if they have embroidery thread on clearance, great way to build your color library. I have about 500 spools of differnt colors and another 500 in odd sizes and amounts. You didn't mention your make of machine. 10 is a good amount to feel your way through the maze of different threads. My machine isn't picky, I use Madeira, Isacords, Robinson/Anton, Sulky, and others, no issues of breakage of tension issues. I have a Janome 350E. Also, you can get large spools of bobbin thread on Ebay very reasonable and that will allow you use your colors for the top part of your embroidery.