diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 456b8db76105e3fcfaae81aed05930315812cbab..a739c1a42c3c3425b0a8d0e7a64ec0e99ec5cacf 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,14 @@ Make Experiments!
 Release Changes
 ---------------
 
+Release 1.0.11
+==============
+
+Configuration
+-------------
+
+* Fixed to use native variable formatting in all sections of a job's config
+
 Release 1.0.10
 ==============
 
diff --git a/mkexp b/mkexp
index 05acf69bb90bf31f42536646459d04100527bd12..04b0741dfc96866fefd30168f5ebdd4ef980c4b9 100755
--- a/mkexp
+++ b/mkexp
@@ -526,9 +526,9 @@ for subjob, subconfig in jobs_config.iteritems():
         var_format = job_config['JOB'].get('.var_format', '${%s}')
         var_list = set()
         del job_config['jobs']
+        job_config['jobs'] = jobs_config
         job_config.walk(format_vars, log=var_list, fmt=var_format)
         job_config['VARIABLES_'] = var_list
-        job_config['jobs'] = jobs_config
         for namelist, groups in job_config['namelists'].iteritems():
             if isinstance(groups, dict):
                 # Support deprecated keyword 'use_template' but warn user