I just finished a table runner and it too had to have metallic thread. I had a spool of Coats and Clark gold metallic so using a prewound bobbin of white, I placed the C&C metallic on a thread stand, threaded my machine (Janome 15000) stitched a bit on a sample sandwich, and wow, worked perfectly. I stitched the rays from the star above the manger and was so pleased that I switched to free motion and thread painted over the star and the halo over baby Jesus.
Don't know whether it was just plain luck or what but so glad I just bit the bullet and went for it. Here is a picture of the runner.....actually I am going to hang on the wall. So I say....go for it after a test stitch on a sample of fabric.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]619736[/ATTACH]