How to gain experience in writing whole applications?

[ssj5goku]

I feel familiar with basic programming things like loops, recursion, function calls, classes, inheritance and such and have read introductory books on the language features of java (like headfirst java) and c++. I have also read headfirsts book on design patterns and read books about best practices like test first development etc.however I do not feel educated to write whole applications, because whenever I start writing a small (but not trivial) program many (design) questions pop up and I am not in contact with anyone who could give me advise. therefore I am looking for:

• a tutorial/book that explains how two write a full (but not small as the usual textbook program) application and also explains why certain things were done in a certain way
• a manageable (but not too small) open source program (java would be best), that is nicely written and I can learn from

I know there is an abundance of tutorials online and huge websites full of open source software, but I am looking for some concrete recommendations what I should do to advance my skills. I do not want to read book that only tells you how a program should be, because I think I am mostly lacking practical experience and want to actually code something.Thanks a lot!