Snow White cut out a big square of cotton fabric and placed it in a chest. The first gnome came, took out the square of fabric from the chest, cut it into four squares, put these back in the chest and left. Later the second gnome came and took out one of the squares and then cut it into four pieces and placed all of these in the chest. Then came the third gnome. He also took out one of the squares and cut it into four squares and put them all back in the chest. The rest of the gnomes also did the same thing. How many squares of fabric were in the chest after the seventh gnome left?