Cattitude -- another vote on it's great!!
I'm not a big fan of sampler quilts either, or more specifically it doesn't seem to be something I'm good at, but I see what other people do and just love it. My brain just doesn't think well that way.
The way I work I usually make a few test blocks and/or deliberately make several more scrappy blocks than planned, just because sometimes blocks just don't play well together. I used to have problems then doing something with those blocks, and that's usually turned into giving them away -- but now more and more I put them on the back of my quilt.