Okay, I spent $30 on some gold metallic thread to use on my d-i-l's quilt. I thought with the deep purple and black material and the gold stars, quilting the whole thing in gold would be very pretty. So, I order this stuff from Joann's and guess what? It ravels completely apart after about ten or so stitches.
I use a #10 quilting needle and do all my quilting by hand. I was so disgusted this afternoon I grabbed my old standby of natural colored thread and started quilting it in natural.. The back of the quilt is solid black and boy, does that natural color show up. This just really fries my bacon!
Any ideas of how to keep the thread from raveling? By raveling, I mean just coming unspun, all the gold off the filament.

To be honest, I would try a different thread. Can you take the other spools back?

wow, I would be steamed, too ~ I haven't gotten heavy into the hand-quilting yet, but will be watching for the answers... I want to do some art quilts, of course with metallics (Laurel Burch designs)

I have had pretty good luck with the Mettler Metallic 40 wt. and Thread Heaven. Also the Guttermann gold metallic with the Thread Heaven. Also had to be sure that I only cut and hand quilted with an 18" length. Haven't gotten good ("brave") enough on my FMC or just straight stitching to try the metallic, but that is on my to-do list. If push comes to shove you can always go with a yellow thread as close to gold as possible, and if you used a rayon thread it would give some sparkle.

I once used silver metallic to hand quilt. Even though the result was fine, it was a major pain. If you don't find the answer you are seeking here, change the title of your post to "which metallic thread is best for hand quilting" or some such to attract a reader who might know.

There are special metallic needles to use with this thread that prevents shredding :D:D:D