I haven't checked up on the project in a while, but http://www.clifford.at/yosys/ http://www.clifford.at/yosys/ has an interesting open source toolset. It's bee

I haven't checked up on the project in a while, but http://www.clifford.at/yosys/ http://www.clifford.at/yosys/ has an interesting open source toolset. It's been a while since I've done much with FPGAs as they're not that friendly to hobbyists compared to analog circuitry and microcontroller based digital circuitry, though they're still interesting to handle. My general recommendation is to try to get to the point that you can sell one circuit board (populated or unpopulated) as (depending upon your skill level) it may highlight areas that you can learn more as well as providing a portfolio piece.