This idea gets my vote too.

My first thought was ,,,how about a hat for the duck. I think that would be cute...just a thought :)

Judy in Phx, AZ

I was going to say a bow, how funny

Put a hat on him or use the seam rippers. You might consider another bit of stitching for all the other animals, too. It's going to get washed a lot. If it had to frazzle, it's a good thing it did while still in your possession.

Quick trick if you are too frustrated... Get an iron on appliqué and place it where the duck was. There are a lot of cute ones out there. I made my son a Irish chain and added a mater(from cars movie) iron on appliqué and it really held up well.

What type of fabric was the appliqué made from?

This happened to one of the baby quilts my DD received at her baby shower. What I did was cut out the fabric inside the applique just leaving the satin stitch. The shape was easy to see it was a fish. It looked great. I checked the other appliques and the ones that looked pulling from the stitch I cut those out too. The quilt really looked like it was suppose to be that way. Some of the applique filled in some not.

My thoughts exactly. Some kind of a hat.

The hat sounds like the perfect fix. So sorry you've had problems with such a darling quilt.

Aww, I hate to see things like this happen.
I Love the idea of adding a hat, hides the flaw & adds more whimsy to it.
Don't the new owner of the quilt, they never need to know :)