By placing a solid black/white/red strip down the center of your block it appears to have sashing squares. Plus I personally wouldn't do hand piecing except on muslin or some other lightweight material because we never know if our strips are on grain or not and they need the stability of a foundation. Bonnie Hunter suggests using old phone books for foundations, setting machine stitch to 12-15 per inch and using a #90 Jeans needle to make it easier to remove paper. And if your foundation paper starts to tear before you want it to - use printer labels cut in strips (like a band-aid) to tape them together.