I have used Madeira and Superior metallic thread in various quilts and they are still holding up. With machines, the rule is use a needle with a larger eye that is also big enough to make a hole that the thread will slide through easily. For the part you are going to do it by hand, I would use an embroidery needle since they have a large eye (the thread is less likely to shred if the eye is large -- if the thread has drag as you pull it through the eye, the eye is too small). The next step is to experiment with the needles to see which one gives you a hole that works for the thread -- again you don't want to have the hole so small that it stresses the thread and causes it to shred. Hope this helps. I have done a small bit of embroidery with metallic (my hands can't hold a needle easily), and different brands require a different size of eye (some metallics are flat - think Sulky -, some are twisted and some are braided (these last ones are very heavy and in a machine are either couched or used in the bobbin), so you have to try the thread with different needles.