Shortcode for SHOW 2 POSTS

I have been trying to get this shortcode to work properly for me to no avail.

I want it to show posts from a specific category but only show 2 posts. This code shows all the posts in the category instead of 2 as I specify in the code.


function category_shortcode( $atts )
{
extract(shortcode_atts(array(
'limit' => '2',
'category' => '',
), $atts));
//The Query
query_posts('category=' . $id . 'posts_per_page=' . $limit);
//The Loop
if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
echo '<h3><font color = blue> New Article:</font></h3>';
echo the_content();
endwhile; else:
endif;

//Reset Query
wp_reset_query();
}
add_shortcode('category', 'category_shortcode');

I use this shortcode on the page:

[category id=3 limit=2]

This shows all the posts instead of just two. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

I am using shortcode because every query I did to display posts was not working.

Basically I just need to show the two most recent posts in full on a specific page. I can use shortcode or a custom template.

Can anyone help me out?

Thank you in advance!

James