Finding the area.

Counting unit squares: 8 times a whole square, 8 times a half square and 8 times a quarter square. So this makes 14 squares total.

The blue region is symmetrical on the centre of the square. The entitle blue region is made up of 8 pieces of the blue sub-region marked with red outline, which is made up of 3 halves and a quarter of a unit grid square. Therefore the area of the blue region: $A = 8 \left(\dfrac 32+\dfrac 14 \right) = \boxed{14}$ .