I've recently contributed to an opensource project myself for the first time. The project is Filezilla (the client in particular), and I added a feature to create a new, empty file on the server. About 70 lines of code in the end, but having little c++ experience it cost me two evenings, though that includes getting it to compile (also a first, compiling a project with a number of dependencies and lots of code on Linux). The patch is being reviewed now, and I have good hope it makes it to the next release. It feels really good to complete because I've actually done something measurable; solved a problem in software used by thousands.
I'd like to take such a project on again. It was small enough for me to grasp in a language that I was not very familiar with, and I learned lots of things. And it solved an actual problem. So those are things I'd be looking for in a project to take on. Perhaps you prefer something bigger? Or not? Not that I'd know a project to suggest, but perhaps others do ;)